Monday, August 29, 2005

Gay Iraqi laments life after invasion

As the drafters of the new Iraqi constitution debate the role of religious law, Salam Pax, the gay Iraqi blogger who became internationally known through his postings about life in Iraq during the war, told the Blade that conditions have worsened for gays in the country since the United States invaded.

Salam said that gays in Iraq have no rights and are seen as, “lower in status than sewer rats.”

An architect by training, Salam worked as a translator for an American journalist during the war. He began his blog to keep in touch with his friend, who had moved to Jordan to pursue a master’s degree. After gaining international fame as a writer, he covered the 2004 U.S. presidential election for the British Guardian newspaper. But since then, his voice has not been heard much on the Internet.

“Being ignored and not acknowledged is for me much better than being actively persecuted by a religiously zealous government,” he said.

“The previous regime [of Saddam Hussein] didn’t actively persecute gay men, and we never got to the point where men were hanged like in Iran, but if you got accused if engaging in homosexual acts then [you could] get something like five months in prison which, as we know, is never going to be a pleasant thing in Iraq.”

Shiite religious groups have come to play a far more prominent role in Iraq since the fall of Saddam Hussein’s secular dictatorship.

“There is now a real struggle to keep the demands of the religious extremists in check, to make sure that Iraqis are not denied basic human rights in the name of abiding to religious laws,” Salam said. “It is way too early for us to even think about gay rights. I want to make sure I will have the right to shave my beard and wear a tie if I want to.”

Juan Cole, a University of Michigan history professor who has been following the development of the new Iraqi constitution on his blog “Informed Comment” confirmed Salam’s concerns.

“I very much doubt the constitution will give rights to gays,” Cole said via e-mail. “If it enshrines Islamic law, in fact, being gay could be a capital crime.”

There are no political support groups for gays and no political party sees any benefit in mentioning gays in a positive or negative way, Salam said. Public discussion of gay issues is generally limited to discussion in the newspapers of how disgusting gays are and what type of punishment is appropriate for gay behavior.

The only group that has voiced an opinion about gay rights for Iraqis, Salam said, is the Organization for Women’s Freedom in Iraq, which is affiliated with the Iraqi Worker’s Socialist Party, “and they have never mentioned this inside Iraq because as progressive as they are in demanding women’s rights, they know that supporting same-sex relationships is a bit too progressive.”

Many high-level members of the government are eager to have religious law enshrined in the new constitution, said Farida Deif, researcher for the women’s rights division of Human Rights Watch said. Everywhere that conservative religious law has been written into a constitution, Deif added, it has codified inequality and discrimination.

“The question is, is Islamic law going to be a source of legislation or is it going to be the source of legislation,” Deif said.

Since the adoption of the Code of Personal Status in 1959, Iraq’s family law has been fairly secular, Deif said.

Zaid A. Zaid, a gay American, worked in Iraq as a liaison between the Coalition Provisional Authority and the Iraqi Governing Counsel between February and April of last year. Zaid said that his experience as an openly gay man in Iraq was a positive one.

Zaid said inside the Green Zone, the three square mile area guarded by American troops, he encountered other openly gay government workers, closeted U.S. service members and National Guard troops, and closeted gay civilians who had previously worked for Republicans in Washington.

Working in the Green Zone is stressful, Zaid said, with most people working 13 or 14-hour days and nothing to do but sleep during down time.

“It’s not like there were many opportunities for dating or anything else.”

Hey cool master resell right blog! After reading through some of the master resell right posts on your blog site, I thought your readers might like to check out this new master resell right blog/site I found.

This master resell right blog/site is offering Source Code Master Resell Rights and Branding Rights to 7 of the hottest master resell right businesses going! I mean just one of thses guaranteed error bug free software programs is worth the price they are charging for all 7!

Imagine starting your own affiliate master resell right site and being able to offer your affiliates INSTANT PAYMENT! Is that cool or what? Wait till you see the other 6!

Hi, I’m out searching & surfing for the latest information on "adult friend finder and found your blog. Although this isn't exactly what I am looking for, it caught my attention and I just read this post. I see now why Google pointed me here while I was searching for "adult friend finder related stuff. I'm glad I stopped long enough to read your posts -- thanks.

Adult Friend Finder is one of the big boys in the adult personals world.With over 25 million members, the largest adult datingsites on the internet and is one of the longest running and mostestablished adult dating sites and matrimonial around.

Adult Friend Finderserves people looking for sexual encounters encompassing everythingfrom plain vanilla to extreme fetishes, with searches that take variedinterests into account. It is the place for married people to meet eachother for intimate encounters, the place where recently divorcedmid-lifers try to sow the wild oats they didn't when they were younger,and where young people wanting to experiment find willing instructors.

Overall, AdultFriendFinder is one of the best and most active adult dating sites on the internet.

Features of Adult Friend FinderHundred's of thousands of explicit photos uploaded each week. You can only view the full sized member photos as a member - join free now! Rank other AdultFriendFinder member photos at LikeMyNudePhoto.com Huge public and private chat rooms organized by region, so you can chat to sexy singles where you live, have cybersex and set up local parties. Anonymously email, chat & instant message with other sexually-liberated members. Thousands of members' sexy webcam videos online. Watch thousands of exhibitionists playing on their webcams - and you can too. Keep track of your potential partners and your friends at AdultFriend Finder with your hot-list. You can have 200 people in your listduring your free trial, and this number get larger depending on your membership level. Free online magazine section full of erotic stories and member experiences. Available to members and guests. Easily turn your profile on and off, so you can choose whether its visible to other members. Complete privacy protection - no one will know your identity unless you tell them! Excellent technical support Join Adult Friend Finder

Choose from a standard (free), silver or gold membership.

The Free Trial at Adult Friend Finder allowsyou to browse members in your area, wink at them, and even use theadult sex chat rooms. It will allow you to get a feel for the site andsee what it's really like. All you need to do to become a free member is fill out a short form with your basic profile information.

Silver membership allows you to contact other members bye-mail and view all the members' photos (the more explicit photos arenot normally visible to standard members). With a silver membership youwill also rank above the standard members and have a greater set ofsearch parameters, including the ability to restrict your searchresults to members that are within a particular geographic region.

Gold membership will get your profile listed at the top ofsearch results, so whenever someone does a search, your profile willappear first. It will also give you the complete set of searchparameters plus many other beneficial features.

Joining is very easy and free - there is a one-page registration form, which will only take about a minute to complete.